B.C. man bowled over by $16 million Lotto 6/49 jackpot

One couldn’t blame White Rock’s Tibor Tusnady for feeling a little flushed these days – after all, he’s just become B.C.’s newest millionaire.

Tusnady, a retired pharmacist, won $16.4 million , after matching all six numbers in the April 15 Lotto 6/49 draw. His ticket – purchased at the Elgin Esso on Crescent Road in South Surrey – was the only one in Canada to win the jackpot.

“It’s a big, big shock,” Tusnady, 63, said during a moving Facebook live interview with BCLC interim president and CEO Greg Moore. “I already warned the bank I’m coming with a big cheque.”

Tusnady (pronounced Tush-nady) told BCLC it took some time for him to get a handle on the situation. He was sitting on the toilet at home when he decided to check his 6/49 tickets against the winning numbers.

“I Googled the numbers,” he said. “I took my ticket out and checked and just went blank. I tried to take a deep breath, let it register, and went back and checked again and again.”

In shock, he waited till the next day to drop the bomb on his wife.

“The next day, after lunch, I held my wife’s hand and said, ‘Look, I have something to tell you and I don’t want anything to change with us,’” Tusnady recounted.

After that, Tusnady shared the good news with relatives across Canada and in Hungary via video meetings.

At first, “nobody believed it,” he said.

“Everybody thinks it’s a joke.”

He claimed the prize via BCLC’s alternative prize-claim process.

Tusnady said travel will be on his family’s to-do list once the pandemic has passed – and the plane tickets will seat them at the front of the aircraft from now on.